Correction appended
Dr. Horrible is a musically gifted supervillain on his way to greatness — or at least, that’s what he wants to think. The sad truth is that he is a wannabe villain who has a crush on the laundry girl next door.
And on Nov. 5, AU Players performed the famed online musical, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” to a packed audience in the Kreeger Building.
“Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” was originally aired as an online-only miniseries in 2008. It is a tragicomedy written by Joss Whedon (creator of “Buffy”) that follows Dr. Horrible’s (Neil Patrick Harris, “How I Met Your Mother”) blog on his quest to become a member of the Evil League of Evil.
In the original web short, Dr. Horrible is trying to become a supervillain while simultaneously hoping to romantically pursue his laundry buddy, Penny, (Felicia Day, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”). Along the way his nemesis, Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion, “Castle”), gets in the way of both goals.
AU Players’ adaptation of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” had few, if any, alterations to the original dialogue.
Their version was much more simplistic in its set and props, but that certainly did not take away from the fun.
The audience likely recognized that some of the props even came from around AU, including bowls from TDR and recycling bins that served as tables.
The chorus of supporting actors each wore jeans, sneakers, different colored T-shirts and even served as props.
AU Players provided the audience with lyrics for all of the songs. The audience members who did not know the songs by heart were looking down at the paper frequently if they wanted to sing, resulting in them missing out on the performances.
The performance had a projector that served as part of the set itself, but it may have been beneficial to also use it to show the lyrics, keeping the crowd’s eyes on the stage.
Even so, most of the audience did not seem to mind, since many were jovially singing along and joining in the Dr. Horrible fun.
At times there were members of the audience who were singing loudly or making comments over the actors’ performances. They were a distraction to the show, but the actors never broke character. They often even paused when someone was making a loud comment so the audience would not miss the line.
The actors were adaptive so that the audience did not lose a moment of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” due to disruptive participants.
Will Putnam, who played Dr. Horrible, had Neil Patrick Harris’ shoes to fill. Putnam easily managed the balance between anarchist nemesis and love-struck boy.
Similarly, Carter Lowe fulfilled Nathan Fillion’s handsome and cocky persona, Captain Hammer.
Penny (Samantha Oakes) and Moist (Sean Reilly Wood) also delivered excellent performances in their respective roles. Oakes has a beautiful singing voice that suits her innocent character. Reilly Wood was a successful supporting character to Putnam’s Dr. Horrible and managed not to get buried under the main roles.
A previous version of this article inaccurately stated that Eric Tengi played Moist in the show. Sean Reilly Wood played Moist.
